I Might Be Back

This is the final post in my series of records I bought at Wanna Hear It Records in early December last year. Once I'd finished choosing some stuff to buy from the racks, I took the pile to the counter and waited for the lady behind the counter to total things up. And then I noticed another box of 7"s sat on the counter. This was full of slightly more expensive records, and with a couple of minutes to kill, I figured I would have a quick look. And well, I found a record in there that I had been hoping to find for probably ten years. Maybe fifteen.

This is a repress of Unbroken 'You Won't Be Back' 7" on New Age Records on pink vinyl. I don't know exactly when this was pressed, although it was probably somewhere in the 2005-07 sorta era. Anyone know for sure? What I do know for sure is that this pressing came many years after this 7" originally released. I'm also not really sure what the pressing info on this was, but I think that it's a story similar to the Bold 7", whereby the record was supposed to be pressed on orange vinyl, but some copies came back pink.

I don't actually know when this was pressed, but I'm assuming what I have said is probably true simply because there are lots of orange copies, yet the pink seems relatively scarce. I mean, it's taken my close to 15 years to find one of these, so you know it isn't exactly common. Sadly there is no official information anywhere, so we will probably never know.= how many exist. But I was really happy to find one lurking in this store.

Well anyway, that's the end of my series of posts from my shopping trip at Wanna Hear It Records frommy last US trip. Overall I would say that if you get the chance to visit the shop you definitely should. It was definitely one of the best I have ever been to. It had a good mix of new releases and used records, and the prices were sensible. It was a really fun trip, and I hope you've enjoyed seeing the crap I spent my money on in there. Hopefully one day I will visit again.

Are you Listening?

My tenth post of the stuff I picked up at Wanna Hear It Records in early December, and this record is one that I have had in my collection for many years without knowing anything about.

Collapse Records released the self titled 12" EP by Forced Forward back in 2006. I'm not 100% sure when I picked this up, but I think I may have ordered it when I ordered the Robot Whales LP from the same label. In all those years I have never known anything about the band Forced Forward, and digging around the internet has also failed to yield any results. The most I can muster is that (I think) they were from Washington DC. That's all.

This 12" record contains 5 songs, and the CD version had 3 extra songs from the band's demo. All I can say is that this is a really good record, but for whatever reason it has been forgotten over time, to the point where you can now pick it up for pretty much nothing. I grabbed this blue vinyl copy just because it was there and it was cheap.

One really nice touch about this record is that the cover is reversible. It has two different covers, one printed on the reverse of the other. The pink vinyl copy I have uses the other side as the front cover. I took a picture of the two copies side by side to show what I am rattling on about:

If you have never heard this band then all I can do is recommend giving them a chance. If you don't like it that's fine, but if you do then you can buy a copy of this one for yourself for less than a new 7".

Stand Your Ground

Another post from my haul at Wanna Hear It Records. This 7" is one that I have seen over the years but never owned or even heard before, despite it being released back at the end of the 90s. I was attracted to this because of the band name, the photos on the front and back of the sleeve, the beautiful green vinyl, and that it was released on Jitsu Records (who released the first Carry On 7"). Oh yeah, plus also the price. Like most of the 7"s I bought that day, it was pretty damn cheap.

It probably doesn't show in the photo, but this is hand numbered out of 200 copies on the label.

This band was from Oxnard, CA and features Zack Nelson (In Control, Retaliate) and Todd Jones (Nails, Betrayed, Terror, Carry On etc). This isn't really breaking any new ground (and wasn't when it came out), but it's still a great little 7", and a cool little piece of sxe history. There's also a pink vinyl copy that exists and I'd also happily take one of those if anyone has one they would let go?

Blue Splits

Here's a couple more 7"s that I picked up at Wanna Hear It Records in early December last year. Today's records are both split 7"s from around the turn of the century, and both on blue vinyl. And both were really cheap.

First up is this Death Threat / Over My Dead Body 7". This was put out by Bridge Nine in 2002, at a time when Bridge Nine and Boston hardcore were absolutely at the top of the game. I loved that period in hardcore as there were some really great bands coming out, and record collecting was back on the up. This 7" is cool because each band does three songs - two original songs, and one cover each. =

This blue vinyl copy is from the 3rd pressing and is out of 1,000 copies. I already had 3 different copies of this one, but all of those were from many years ago. But of course, picking this one up now makes me want the ones I am missing (the clear yellow vinyl and the two different tour covers).

The second record is a split between Holding On and The Real Enemy. I have both Holding On full length records and always liked them, but never really got overly involved with their 7"s, mainly because it always felt that there were too many of them. But seeing this one in the racks with this great Guns 'N' Roses tour cover, I figured this was a really good place to jump on in. I mean, come one... who could resist this?

I love how the Holding On side changes their name to 'Hold N On'. It's details like this that I always enjoy. Clever stuff.

This limited cover is just two pieces of photocopied paper slotted either side of the regular cover. It's also numbered on the inside of the cover, and I got a pretty low number.

As much as I love getting rare stuff like test pressings, I also love really great cheap 7"s like these. Records that are actually really good releases, but that have been kinda forgotten about and are really cheap to pick up. The only problem is that the more I buy of these things, the more of them I want. But I guess that's how I ended up here in the first place, right?

Jungle Jamz

Still getting through the pile of stuff I bought in December at Wanna Hear It Records, and today's post is a couple of records that I was really stoked to find because I had traded for them about 6 years ago and then they went missing as part of my lost parcel.

The 'Jungle Jamz' 7" came out back in 2014. The band were around back in the early 00s and had a song on the 'Sweet Vision' compilation alongside Mental, Righteous Jams, The Wrong Side, Get Real etc. The singer of The First Step played bass in this band too. They released the songs on this 7" on cassette in 2003, and then for some reason someone decided to release it on vinyl eleven years later. I was happy, not least because there were some different colour vinyl versions to collect. After losing the green vinyl years ago I had never really had a chance to pick one up, so when I saw it in a store in front of me, I just had to grab it.

By some fluke, the store also had a test press hidden in a pile behind the counter that hadn't yet been priced. I managed to get them to price it and thought that the price was really reasonable, so immediately bought it. It comes in a paper sleeve with sticker, and the labels are stamped and hand numbered.

I still have a list of all the records that I lost in that parcel back in 2016 and these are two that I am happy to tick off as now having reacquired. The count is now 47 acquired, and 51 to go.

Anyway, here's a photo of my little collection of this 7", which is now complete as far as I am concerned.

Included above are the test press (/10), black vinyl in highlighted sleeve (/25), green vinyl (/100) and yellow vinyl (/150). It's taken a while, but I am pretty happy to finally havea happy ending to this story.

Mission Impossible

Another 7" from Wanna Hear It Records, and another version of a record I already had on a different colour vinyl that I couldn't resist buying because it was so cheap.

This 7" is by a band from Orange County called Mission Impossible. The record is titled 'Killing Us Softly' and was released by Dan O'Mahony's label Workshed Records back in 1991. When I was getting into hardcore this was just one of those 7"s that everyone had in their collection, which on reflection was probably due to the label that released it. The band never released anything else, so probably never really had too much of a presence. Yet literally everyone I knew had their 7".

I saw this copy for sale and although it had been some time since I had had my 7" out of its sleeve, I was pretty sure it was on a different colour vinyl. I know that Nico has about 400 copies of this record on various shades of lilac/purple, so I knew there were variations out there. Given it was cheap, I just decided to buy it assuming it would probably be different to the one I already had.

When I got home I was pleased to find out that my memory had not let me down. The copy that I have had in my collection for the past 28 years or so is a much lighter colour.

I'm not sure exactly how many variant colours of this one exist, but it's a relatively easy one to collect as it sells for very little these days. It's not that it's a bad record. Just one that has been forgotten about and lost in the sands of time. It's actually well worth picking up if you see one for sale. And if you do buy one and get a different colour to the two above, let me know.

Silver Ink

Post number 5 in my series of records I picked up at Wanna Hear It Records towards the end of last year, and this is one that I wasn't 100% sure whether I needed or not. Good job I had a good phone reception and could look up what I had on my spreadsheet.

Sinking Ships 'Ten' 7" on red vinyl in 'Sound & Fury' (record release) cover. As should be obvious from the pic, these were just regular copies of the record that the band had which they bastardised into special covers by the use of a silver pen.

The reason that I wasn't sure if I had this one or not is that there were two versions which were subtley different, and I knew I only had one. I guess I got lucky that day, because the one in the shop was the one I was missing. To show the differnce clearly, I pulled out both and laid them both side by side.

In total there were 100 copies in these record release sleeves. They were originally sold at Sound And Fury fest, which took place from July 26th-29th, 2007. There are 2 different versions - numbers 1-50 are on red vinyl with sleeve hand writing in silver ink, and numbers 51-100 are on pink vinyl with sleeve hand writing in gold ink.

To make things even more confusing, there is also a euro tour version which is made in the same way, with 'European Tour' hand written across the front. They are also on red vinyl and numbered out of 65 copies. I always used to get confused by these different sleeves and vinyl covers, but hopefully I have now (finally) got them all and figured out what the deal is. And to think, it only took 15 years.

Feels Like One Thousand Years

The next post in my series of records that I bought at Wanna Hear It Records, and this is a record I have wanted for quite some time. Not because it is a great record, but more from a collector point of view. I've had a grey vinyl copy of this for years, and I always kinda wanted a blue one too. So when I came across it in the 7" bin, it went straight into my pile of stuff to buy.

The funny thing about this was that when I pulled it out, I had to double check my collection to be certain that this was the colour I wanted, rather than the one I already had. I told Mike that I was checking if I already had this colour, and he seemed surprised that I would consider buying a secnod copy of a live record. My response was simply 'yeah, but this is a colour I don't have', but even as a fellow collector he seemed puzzled. Ha.

This record is Victory Records number 11, and was originally released in 1993. According to some really old (but official) Victory discography that I have saved on my computer, there were 500 copies on blue and 500 copies on pink marble. However, I have a grey copy. I'm pretty sure that the grey and pink were both the same pressing and the record was (like the first pressing of the Deadguy LP) pressed on 'scrap' vinyl, which usually comes out in the somewhere between grey and purple.

To end this post, this 7" reminded me of something semi interesting. About 4 years ago I received an email out of the blue from a complete stranger and it read as follows:

Hi Marcus. Years ago I was buddies with Ray Barbieri “Raybeez” from Warzone. I’ve always been told that myself, my sister, and a couple of our friends were pictured on one of his 7” covers (inside or back cover) but I’ve never seen it. I would love to locate it. It would have been 1992-1993 ish. Just a crew of skinhead girls...maybe in front af a car or truck? Any help is appreciated:)

I then sent her a photo of the insert of this 7" and she confirmed that she was one of the girls in two of the photos. She seemed pretty happy to see the photos for the first time ever, some 25 years after the photos were taken. It was a rare example of this blog feeling useful for once.

Sweet Vision

Next up in my list of records that I picked up from Wanna Hear It Records is this green vinyl copy of the 'Sweet Vision' compilation 7". I genuinely think that this is one of the best compilations of the last twenty years, or possibly THE best comp of the 2000s. It's a great time capsule of what was going on in 2004, when lots of new bands were stepping up and ushering in a new generation of kids to the scene. Righteous Jams, Mental, The Wrong Side, Jaguarz, Get Real... all bands that I still listen to to this day. At first I was apprehensive of some of these bands, but looking back now they were all so good. This comp does make me feel a little nostalgic for those days, when things still felt exciting and dangerous, and when I was still very much included under the banner of 'young'.

I was really stoked by this particular copy of this record because it is a kind of light and dark green swirl. It definitely looks like a one off variant. I also think it looks more special in person. I'm not sure the photo is doing it justice.

I was absolutely convinced that my green vinyl copy of this 7" was on a clear green, which is why I was so stoked to find this copy for sale. But when I got home I realised that my memory had failed me for once, as my other copy is on a solid light green... meaning the one I just bought isn't quite as different as I thought it was.

I also realised that I'm still missing one of the colours of this 7", and I kinda want it now. Of course the ones on discogs are a little more than I want to pay, especially factoring in the postage costs. But I will keep my eyes peeled and hopefully find one at some point. Oh yeah, and a test press would be nice too in case anyone happens to have one and think that they can live without it. Get at me.

Crossed Off Twelve Times

Here's another one I picked up in Wanna Hear It Records from the used 7" section...

There were a couple of different copies of the Let Down 'Crossed Off' 7", and at first I assumed that I had both given I have a lot of copies. But looking at them closer and I was sure that there was one I didn't have. Something about it looked unfamiliar. The price was really good so I decided to buy it anyway, and if it turned out I already had it then I'd just give it to someone. But when I got home I realised that I was right and I didn't have it as initially suspected.

There were so many different versions of this record that it's pretty much impossible to keep up. But this one comes with a red number stamped in the corner of the paper sleeve. This is number 7, but I asked around and I can't find anyone who knows how many exist that this is number 7 of.

The reason I thought that I didn't have this one is that the eyes on the face on the front cover looked different. The eyes are coloured in silver. There's one I already had that looks similar but the eyes are coloured in red, and the record comes on corresponding maroon vinyl. As you can see here, they are extremely different and only an amateur would get confused as to which one they might or might not have.

I genuinely think that this is one of the best looking records ever made. There are several vinyl colours and several different coloured covers and these days they can be pretty cheap to pick up. Every couple of years I seem to find another one which keeps things interesting. I pulled them all out for a photo but couldn't be bothered to take the records out of the sleeves. If anyone has any that I don't have then let me know.

Wanna Hear Some Straight Edge Hardcore

The next few posts I am going to devote to some records I picked up in a store called Wanna Hear It Records, which is just outside of Boston, MA. On a cold afternoon in early December last year I met up with fellow blog nerd Mike and, with a little time to kill, we decided to go and look for records. After driving to the wrong place and then walking ten minutes or so to the new one, it ended up being one of the best record shops I have ever been in.

I decided not to put up everything I bought here in one post because it would be too long. So instead I figured I would break it into a few seperate posts over the next few days.

What I liked about the shop was that it had a good selection of records from different eras, it had new releases and used stuff, and the prices were sensible. I started off (as ever) looking through the 12"s which didn't yield too much, and then I started to flick through the substantial 7" section. And, as is often the case, there were lots of cool finds in the used 7" section. A lot of the US record stores seem to have similar used 7" sections, with lots of cool stuff that I probably wouldn't go too crazy over online with postage costs being added, but when these things are in front of you and the prices are low then it is tough to NOT buy stuff. So I thought I'd kick off this series of posts with a 7" that kinda sums up what I'm talking about...

The Proclamation 'Straight Edge Hardcore' 7" was released by Bridge Nine Records back in 1998. I have had a 2nd press clear vinyl copy since around 2001 or thereabouts, so when I saw a 1st press red vinyl copy for a low price, I figured it was worth picking up.

The funny thing is, after owning this for twenty years or so, when I saw the red vinyl copy I had absolutely no memory of what this sounded like at all. It wasn't ever a record that really stood out or grabbed me and it's possible that I bought it and only played it a couple of times. But still, this is Bridge Nine number 3, it's called 'Straight Edge Hardcore', is on colour vinyl, has some dude wearing a Bold shirt on the cover, has Dirty Harry on one of the labes and is stamped / numbered. Who on earth would NOT buy this thing?

After getting home and playing this I can say it is alright, but not great. None of the songs seemed familiar, so I must have only ever played it a couple of times when I buoght it and then filed it away. Still, I'm a sucker for straight edge 7"s and I have a soft spot for this era, so I do think this is a cool one to have.

To be continued...

Writhe In Pain

Back at the end of the 90s I was into a Californian band called Impel. Within the space of a couple of years they put out four 7"s (two of which were splits) and a full length. They also toured Europe, and I saw them play in room upstairs in a pub one night, and before the show I went skating with the drummer for a little bit. He was a nice guy, a great skater and he gave me a demo (which is one of only about 10 cassettes that I own). I don't often listen to them anymore, but back then I really loved the band a lot. So when I saw a test press of one of their 7"s being offered for sale, it took me right back to 1997 and I felt pretty excited about it. A few minutes later and I had secured it, and for what I thought was a very fair price.

This was released on Ammunition Records in 1996. It was the band's first release. I got this from the guy who used to run the label, and it came in a normal sleeve.

Back when this came out, I was in the process of putting together a zine, and I ended up reviewing this 7" in that. I thought it would be interesting to retype what I wrote back in 1996 for this post. Here it is:

The one thing I noticed from the insert is that the singer is the guy from Kill Holiday. Surprising as it may seem, Impel also sound quite a lot like that band, but way better. They have a nice groove to them. Clean sounding rocky music from California, nothing too special, but obviously these guys have talent. Another summer record for me to pop in my walkman on a sunny day.

Crushed On You

My favourite record this week is this 5 song 12" EP titled 'This Is When The Party Starts' by a band called Crushed On You. This was released by Indecision Records last year, although these are old songs. These songs were originally available on CD only in very limited numbers back in 2008. I'm pretty confident that the band's name is taken from the Unbroken song, given that the singer of this band is Steven Miller (who played guitar in Unbroken).

I'm a fan of two other bands that Steven sang in - Kill Holiday and The Landslide. Musically I would say that Crushed On You sits midway between the two. As regards Kill Holiday, this sounds much closer to the first 7" than the LP.

One thing I find interesting about this record is that the first song is the weakest, at least in my opinion. The other four are much stronger songs, but it is the second song ('Thenk God I'm From California') that is the standout. This song has firmly burrowed into my brain and I find myself singing it all the time. It takes me back to my trips to California and the beautiful sunshine, which feels so far away from where I live in January.

Like a few records that Indecision have been releasing recently, this is a very limited release, with only 200 copies pressed in total, all on green vinyl. Even though there were only 200 made, this is still currently available, presumably because people probably have no idea what it is and also because the band is long dead. For me this was an absolute must purchase, and it's great that these songs finally saw the light of day on a proper format.

Seasons Change

One of my favourite 7"s of the last couple of years (not that there are too many to choose from these days with 7"s being much less popular) is that debut release from New York straight edge outfit Locked Inside. A great record with Dan O'Mahony on vocals (not really, but Ed McKirdy sounds just like him here), and even better, there are endless different colours of vinyl to collect. And whenever these things exist, I get sucked into collecting them. I've already lost count of how many copies I own, but recently I picked up another three copies.

My favourite of the three is the clear smoke copy. This is part of the first pressing and there were 47 of these. Notice that the paper sleeve has 'smoke' handwritten on it to clarify that this is not one of the regular clear copies.

I'm pretty sure that what happened is that 100 clear copies were ordered, but nearly half of them came back with some black mixed in. So they got counted as two different versions.

The other two copies I picked up are also from the first pressing. Purple vinyl was out of 54 copies, and blue vinyl was out of 100 copies.

There are still 4 or 5 versions of this record that I don't have, so this will keep me entertained for a while. But I think that the band are due to release a full length at some point this year, so I'm pretty excited about that. I just hope that there won't be 15 different versions of it for me to get sucked into trying to collect.

Actions And Indications

A few years ago I tried to reduce my spending by deciding to stop buying reissues and represses (except for Revelation releases, which is the one habit I can't break). Anyway, given that lots of my favourite records are now 20-30 years old and collecting records is possibly more popular than ever, it feels that pretty much every record I own either has been repressed, is being repressed, or has been repressed and is being repressed again. Here's the latest one that I just couldn't say no to.

'Actions And Indications' is the 4th full length by Seaweed. This was originally released back in 1999, although back then it took me about 4 years to even realise that it existed. It is the last recorded Seaweed full length, and if I had to rank their albums then I would probably put this one as the fourth best out of four. But bearing in mind that Seaweed are one of my favourite bands of all time, I'd still say that it is better than most other bands' total recorded output.

Fun fact - Alan Cage (Burn, Quicksand) plays drums on this record, giving it a nice hardcore connection.

The repress is exclusive to some record store in Minnesota and I have no idea why. There were 300 made and it is on 'reddish yellow swirl' vinyl. That's what the sticker on the shrinkwrap says. Except clearly this record is orange. It seems to me that there was a law passed a couple of years ago which states that it's no longer legal to describe a vinyl colour using only one word, which is probably why 'orange' was off the table. Other options for colours to press this on could have included the ever popular 'coke bottle clear', 'seafoam green' or maybe even 'dipshit brown'.